Convert it in your browser
- Open PDF to Word and drop in the PDF.
- The text is read page by page and arranged into paragraphs and headings.
- Download the .docx and open it in Word, Google Docs, Pages or LibreOffice.
This keeps the text and page breaks, but not images, tables or exact layout. It suits letters, reports and articles you want to edit.
With Microsoft Word
Word itself can open a PDF: File → Open, choose the PDF and confirm the conversion. It tries to rebuild the layout, including tables, and works best on PDFs that were made from Word documents in the first place.
With Google Docs
Upload the PDF to Google Drive, right-click it and choose Open with → Google Docs. The text becomes editable; images and complex layouts are often lost.
Scanned PDFs
If the PDF is a scan, it contains pictures of text rather than text. Run OCR PDF first to read the words, then copy them into your document.
Just the words
When you only need the text, not a document, PDF to Text gives plain text you can paste anywhere.
What to expect from each kind of PDF
| Result | |
|---|---|
| Made from Word or another text document | Good: the text comes through cleanly |
| A scan or a photo of pages | No text until it has been through OCR |
| Magazine, brochure or form with columns and boxes | The words, but the layout needs rebuilding |
Common problems
- Lines break in the middle of sentences. A PDF stores each line separately. Join lines with Find and Replace in Word, or in the Find and Replace tool here.
- Words are split with hyphens. Hyphens added at line ends in the original stay in the text. Search for "- " followed by a lowercase letter to find them.
- The font looks different. If the PDF used a font you do not have, Word substitutes another. Select all and set the font you want.